Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Lake Michigan Rec. Area & Sleeping Bear Dunes

Sunday & Monday

Stopped by Meijer’s for groceries then headed to the Huron-Manistee National Forest Lake Michigan Recreation Area. We got a prime site near the beach access point. The sites are very large and heavily wooded; lots of privacy. There are several trails we could use with Carols scooter. Dogs are allowed on the trails and beach plus it only costs $8/night. Carol sat on the Lake Michigan observation deck while Gopher & I went swimming. She has no fear of the water at all and had a wonderful time chasing the stick. There were lots of dogs on the beach. I wish Gopher got along better with other dogs but she just doesn’t. She does OK with the initial “introduction” but after that wants nothing to do with them. If a dog she met approaches her, she gets aggressive as if to say “stay away from me”. Oh well.Another Lazy Daze pulled into the campground. He’s from this area and said he was actually surprised to get such a nice campsite. This place is very popular with the locals plus it’s the 4th of July week.Sunday was a beautiful, mostly sunny day. On Monday the weather turned to cool, cloudy & a light drizzle all day long.

Tuesday & Wednesday:

We continued our slow journey north. Drove along the coastal highway, M-22 rather than the faster US-31. It was a beautiful drive through small coastal towns. In Manistee, we spotted a hair cutting place. We both got much needed haircuts. We finally stopped at the Platt River Campground in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore located on the northwestern shore of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. It’s a “hilly region fringed with massive shoreline sand dunes and dotted with clear lakes.”Got real lucky and snagged the last site with electric power. It rained most of the night and into the morning. We drove to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive then on to the Dune Climb area, Glen Haven and the Sleeping Bear Point Coast Guard Station Maritime Museum. The Scenic Drive was through woods & the dune area. Great views of Lake Michigan. Near the Dune Climb area is a 1 mile accessible trail that goes near the dunes and through some beautiful woods. Glen Haven & the old Coast Guard Station had nautical museums, an old General Store and other historical sites. The founder of the Glen Haven area was D.H. Day. A lumberman, fisherman, etc. Glen Haven was a company town. His employees lived in company provided housing and were paid with coupons only redeemable at his store. This was a fairly common practice throughout the Country in the late 1800’s. On the way back to the campground at the end of the day, we stopped by the Platte River access area. The river is crystal clear. The water is filtered through the sand dunes.No sun today. Cool & cloudy with some misty rain.